The 57th edition of BRAFA (Brussels Antiques & Fine Arts Fair) held this week at Tour & Taxis -the jewel of the city's industrial heritage– holds many surprises for visitors and collectors. Regardless of the latest additions added to the list of over 120 exhibitors from Europe and the United States, the event has met once important pieces of art from Oceania, Africa and Asia, along with Haute Époque furniture and decorative arts, design and contemporary art, books and illustrations, making this edition offer diverse and surprising as possible.

With this wide range of possibilities, BRAFA is about renewing their commitment to the public, while exhibitors compete to improve the staging of one's uniqueness stands looking through the mill. The halls of the fair provide a stage structured around the lighting -like in previous editions– in which galleries make shine his jewelry, tableaux, sculptures, tapestries and books, in a suggestive showcase.

One of these, gallery Ronny Van de Velde, uses the original idea of ​​an imaginary museum which consists of small cabinets that contain thematic installations with a clear tendency to surrealism and most irreverent Belgian art. And others, like Champaka Galerie, Galerie Art or Petits Papiers 9ème, will surprise traditional collectors with a new territory for collecting on illustration and graphic novel (with high tradition in Belgium and France).

The unfortunate absence of Galeria Barbié, due to the death of its director, has left Mayoral as the sole Spanish representative of the fair. This year, the Barcelona gallery comes with a representation of its catalog that includes important pieces of artists such as Barceló and Genovés –almost the only Spanish pieces, except for Miró and Valdés- along with works by Bosco Sodi or Tom Wesselmann.

Another year, BRAFA will take the pulse of the art market in 2012, as a precursor that generates high expectations among professionals who expect fair adjust your bid to come as TEFAF. It is expected that over 40,000 people attend during these nine days, but finally, the results will prove the current state of the market and give their fair reward for their constant desire for renewal. Until January 29 at Tour & Taxis, Brussels. Alejandro Martinez

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